A minute to midnight
by Butterflywing
Summary: Two worlds collide, and the old rules of the universe are tossed aside. A new prophecy says that our favorite halfa is the only one who can save the world, but is he up to the challenge? DPHP Crossover
1. Chapter 1

**Full Summary- Two worlds collide, and the old rules of the universe are tossed aside. A new prophecy says that our favorite halfa is the only one who can save the world, but is he up to the challenge? Vlad's been taken prisoner? Technus is in workingwith Voldemort? And what's the big deal with Midnight? DPHP Cross-over.**

It was an unremarkable Friday afternoon. A couple of ghost attacks, some T.V. Not even any school to break the monotony, as summer break had started a week prior. Sam and Tucker were staying the night at Danny's, because his parents were out at a ghost hunting convention, and Jazz, who was supposed to be watching them, was freaking out because she was behind on her thesis (None of them could believe this, considering that she'd started a year and a half earlier than she had to), and had locked herself in her room Wednesday night, emerging only at night to go to the bathroom and grab some food.

It was an unremarkable Friday evening. It started out with Doomed and ending with popcorn and a movie, with only one ghost attack interrupting between the two. Besides this one incident, anyone who was watching would have thought these three teens were perfectly normal. They would, of course, have been wrong. _Dead_ wrong, to be precise.

It was an unremarkable Friday night. They stayed up late, talking, until none of them could keep their eyes open. Then they went to bed, silently enjoying each other's companionship, until one by one they drifted off to sleep. They did not know that this quiet moment of peaceful relaxation would be the last they would get for quite some time.

It was an unremarkable Friday, all around, until midnight. The clock tower a few blocks away chimed loudly.

_**Bong!**_

A single owl flew down and landed on Danny's windowsill.

_**Bong!**_

Across an ocean, the sender of the owl, a very old man with hair as white as new fallen snow and a beard to match, paced his study, worried that his last chance, his last hope, the last hope for all his kind, would fail.

_**Bong!**_

Sam rolled over in her sleep, and Danny mumbled something.

_**Bong!**_

In the ghost zone, nothing moved but the purple doors scattered at random through the place, and the green swirls that were as common there as the weather on Earth. The ghosts were still. They recognized that magical time, from the first stroke of midnight to the last, when nothing was the same as it was a moment before, when men may lay down their weapons and embrace, when hated enemies become loving friends.

_**Bong!**_

Something electronic beeped from under Tucker's pillow. Without even regaining consciousness, he reached under the pillow, pressing the off button.

_**Bong!**_

Two doors away, working on her thesis with only the light of a single desk lamp to guide her, Jazz found that she was suddenly unable to concentrate. She rose and walked to the window, gazing at the moon. The moon was quiet and still, lighting the town with the help of some silent magic.

_**Bong!**_

Tucker rolled over and almost fell off Danny's bed, (which he had borrowed for the night because he had 'flooraphobia', as he put it, and couldn't sleep on the ground,) barley managing to keep his balance.

_**Bong!**_

Two more sleeping houses- two more flying owls. Both flew down to windowsills, waiting, still as statues, melting into the night, so that not even the sharpest of sharp-eyed neighbor could pick them out.

_**Bong!**_

And still, the trio slept on, oblivious to the events all around them that changed their fate.

_**Bong!**_

The owl scratched one sharp talon against the window, producing a hideous screeching sound, but it remained unheard by the three sleeping teens in the room beyond.

_**Bong!**_

It let out a loud screech, desperate to be heard, and Danny started awake, staggering blearily to the window, the possibility of wondering why there was a barn owl on his window sill never reaching his tired brain.

_**Bong!**_

The last note rang, and then faded into silence. The world stretched, stirred, and moved again. The moment was over. Another unremarkable Friday had come and gone. It was Saturday. The future had become reality.

**Well, that's the prologue. I'm sure you can guess what it's about, but oh well. I really like this prologue, so… review and tell me how you like it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, I just saw Urban Jungle, it was SO AWESOME! Was anyone else really happy about that part right before Danny goes into the ghost zone and he's talking to Sam? Or really freaked out about the part where he's in his underwear? Anyway, on with the story!**

_**Chapter summary-Danny is surprised to find a letter attached to the leg of an owl sitting on his windowsill, but that's nothing to how he feels when he finds out what the letter contains! **_

"So, do you think it's a joke?" It was Saturday morning, and Danny, Sam, and Tucker were sitting in Danny's room, talking about the owl and the letter Danny had found tied to its leg. Danny looked down at the letter again. It was written in fancy green letters. He'd read it more than once already, but his eyes followed the lines again, barley able to take in what they were seeing.

_Dear Mr. Fenton,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. As you may or may not be aware, most countries look for evidence of magical talent in all potential students, America being one of the rare exceptions, the only magical school in the country accepting only pure-blood witches into their highly-elite society._

_Usually it is against the international code of education (Second addition, abridged), to take young wizards and witches from other countries into one's school, but in the current situation, an exception has been made. You have earned one of three highly coveted positions, which will be filled with others if you refuse. If you accept, someone will be by to take you for your things and then to a place you can work on catching up on school work you have missed for the rest of the summer on June 15th._

_You will find enclosed a list of books and other supplies you will need for the coming year, as well as a permission slip for your parents to sign that allows you to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends._

_Sincerely,_

_Professor M. McGonagall, _

_Deputy headmistress._

Just as Danny finished reading the letter, Sam's cell phone rang. She answered it, and a high screechy voice came through the other end. Judging by the expression on Sam's face, it was her mother.

"Yea, mom? Slow down. Say that again, _slowly_. "No, mom, slo- Look, I'll just come home, ok? You can tell me whatever it is then. Ok? I'll be home in five minutes." Sam sighed and hung up the phone. "I've got to go, mom's freaking out over something. Again," She sighed and gathered up her things, "Bye."

With Sam gone, Tucker quickly lost interest in discussing the letter, and the two boys started playing Doomed. Jazz came in about half an hour later, wrinkling her nose against the scent of molding cheese (Wherever _that _had come from) and unwashed boy. "Danny, Sam's on the phone, she wants to talk to you."

Danny, intent at shooting a missile at Tucker in revenge for something Tucker had done moments ago, grunted at her to tell Sam he was busy. Jazz sighed at his behavior and walked back out. Danny and Tucker kept playing, completely ignoring their surroundings.

Danny was just about to hit the wall Tucker was hiding behind, when a blast of pink light hit him in the chest and he fell backwards.

GHOSTBOY- Who was that?

FRIARTUCK- Who was what?

GHOSTBOY- That person who- oh, hi Sam!

He gulped nervously as he caught sight of the large figure towering over him.

GHOSTBOY- Um… what's up, Sam?

CHAOS- I've been trying to call you for half an hour! I've got something important to tell you, meet me in the park in fifteen minutes, and if you're not there I _will _submit that picture of you two hugging in the zoo to the yearbook committee!

FRIARTUCK- What! I paid you fifty bucks to get that back!

CHAOS- What, you think you're the only one who knows how to make copies of pictures?

FRIARTUCK-actually, yes…

CHAOS- Whatever, just meet me in the park.

Danny and Tucker reluctantly logged off the game, and Danny yelled at Jazz that they were leaving. Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting on a park bench under the shade of a large beech tree. Sam walked over, holding something in her hand. She sat down next to them, glaring a little.

Tucker squirmed. "What?"

Sam ignored him and said, "Well, guess what my mom wanted to show me when she called me and told me to come home?"

"I don't know, your cat died?"

Sam glared at Tucker. "I don't _have_ a cat. She said she found an owl on my window this morning, and he had _this _attached to his leg."

She held out an open envelope, a piece of paper sticking out from the inside. Reading it quickly, Danny and Tucker discovered that it was exactly the same as the one Danny had found received.

"Well… this is getting stranger and stranger by the hour," said Danny. "What do we do now?" it was as worthy question- what to do now? Ghosts, he could deal with. But this, this was something entirely unrelated. He looked up at the sky. It was later than he had expected. The sun was setting, the sky changing slowly from a bright blue to a fiery orange. A terrible sense of foreboding settled over him, and he felt that at that moment he could relate to the sun. He felt like his old life was ending, and something new was beginning. He remembered the day he got his ghost powers- waking up early due to a violent storm, watching it fade away, and the sun rise.

In some ways, he was completely correct.

It started to rain, and they hurried home. Evening passed into night. Tucker's mom came home to announce that animal control would be stopping by to pick up an owl caught in a trap in the back yard. Before they arrived, Tucker crept out to check, and sure enough found an envelope attached to the owl's leg. He grabbed the envelope and left the door open.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

None of them slept that night. Tucker stayed up until almost eleven denying to his parents that he had set the owl free, and then stayed up late using his PDA to try and figure out where the letters could have come from.

Sam stayed up talking to her grandma, the only member of her family that she ever felt she could relate to. She told her grandma about the envelopes, and even though her grandma couldn't help her, she felt a lot better.

Danny sat on the roof of his building, ignoring the chill that sunset brought. Jazz finally came up and dragged him down to his room at one minute to midnight.

**Ok, there we go. A little bit of a longer chapter, mostly filler, unfortunately, the next one will be better, I swear. Bye for now, and Kiwis for everyone who reviews!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay! 4 reviewers! Kiwis to Epobbp, DXS freak, Sasia93, Lady Jarine, and ghostlover15!**

**Anyway, sorry if the prophecy in this chapter sounds kind of dumb… I've never been very good at writing prophecies, and the fact that I tried to do it in math class probably didn't help much. I've re-written it at last four times, and it's still not perfect.**

_**Chapter Summary- A new prophecy is revealed, and Danny, Sam, and Tucker tell their parents about the Hogwarts letters.**_

_Rising from a cauldron, _

_Swathed in black,_

_An enemy from past returns._

_From within another world,_

_Comes help in a new form,_

_An enemy unknown appears._

_Together seek to bring forth doom,_

_Defeated, though, by two shall be,_

_The boy who lived,_

_The in-between._

_Together rise to stop this threat,_

_Together fight,_

_Or be destroyed._

_But 'fore this sorry tale ends,_

_Two lives are gone,_

_Two hero's friend._

_Dark of storm and late at night,_

_The evil strikes,_

_As clock chimes 12,_

_At night._

Since he'd found the prophecy a week ago, he had managed to puzzle through a lot of it. It didn't help, of course, that it was written in some obscure language used by the Ancient Egyptians.

Using a few spells he'd found in an ancient spidery text almost as old as the one he'd discovered the prophecy in, he'd managed to translate it into English, though the results were a bit rough. He'd managed to puzzle through most of the contents, but the meanings of a few lines still deceived him. He sat down at his desk, taking out a sheet of parchment and jotting down what he'd puzzled through already.

_Rising from a cauldron, _

_Swathed in black,_

_An enemy from past returns._

Obviously a reference to the return of Lord Voldemort, barley half a month ago.

_From within another world,_

_Comes help in a new form,_

_An enemy unknown appears._

He didn't know what that line meant exactly, but it didn't seem to bode well.

_Together seek to bring forth doom,_

Again, fairly obvious.

_Defeated, though, by two may be,_

_The boy who lived,_

_The in-between._

The boy who lived could only mean Harry Potter, though he wished it could be anyone else, wishing he didn't have to put him through anything more than he had already. The in-between, though… could mean hundreds of things, none of them any more likely than the next.

_Together rise to stop this threat,_

_Together fight,_

_Or be destroyed._

Slightly more ominous, but still obvious.

_But 'fore this sorry tale ends,_

_Two lives are gone,_

_Two hero's friends._

Again, obvious, but horribly so. Two lives would be lost, marked down by fate.

_Dark of storm and late at night,_

_The evil strikes,_

_As clock chimes 12,_

_At night._

Professor Dumbledore sighed, getting up from his desk and pacing his study again.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

"Danny, get up, it's already 12:15!" Danny groaned and pulled his pillow over his head as Jazz barged into his room and opened the blinds on his window. "I know you got to bed late last night, but you have to get up now!"

A muffled noise from beneath the pillow.

"What?"

"Why do mph mph mph get up so mph!"

Jazz, used to her brother's limited language skills in the morning, quickly interpreted. "You have to get up because mom and dad are getting home today, remember? And also, 12:15 is _not _early. It's not even morning!"

She left the room, calling from the bottom of the stairs, "And if you're not dressed and down here in 15 minutes I'm getting the Fenton Bazooka out!"

Danny managed to stand up and stagger over to the door and yell down, "You don't even know how to use the Fenton Bazooka!"

He barley heard Jazz's reply from the basement as she shouted "I'll learn!"

Considering his options, he decided that (all thing considered) it would be best to get dressed, and turned around and went back into his room. He had just forced his head through his shirt and started towards the door, when a loud beep from his computer announced that Sam and Tucker were on-line.

FRIARTUCK- DID YOU GET MY E-MAIL LAST NIGHT?

GHOSTBOY- NO.

CHAOS- NO.

FRIARTUCK- I GOT A LETTER FROM AN OWL LIKE YOU TWO DID. I STIL DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN, THOUGH.

CHAOS- ME NEITHER. I TALKED WITH MY GRANDMA LAST NIGHT, AND SHE DOESN'T KNOW EITHER.

GHOSTBOY- YOU KNOW, AS MUCH AS I HATE TO SAY IT, I THINK IT'S TIME FOR _THAT_ OPTION.

CHAOS- NO

GHOSTBOY- SAM!

CHAOS- NO. TUCKER, TELL HIM HE'S CRAZY.

FRIARTUCK- ACTUALLY… I THINK HE'S RIGHT.

CHAOS- YOU'RE BOTH CRAZY!

GHOSTBOY- JUST GIVE IT UP, SAM.

FRIARTUCK- IT'S TIME TO TEL… THE PARENTS.

"Danny, I'm getting the Fenton Bazooka!"

Danny smiled as he looked out the window, and then yelled back, "No you're not! Mom and Dad are home!"

Pulling into the driveway was the Fenton GAV (Ghost assault vehicle), and Danny had never been happier to see it.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Five minutes later, Danny came down the stairs and approached his parents. "Mom, Dad, I've got something to show you…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello people! I'm back, and I brought chapter four with me! Thanks to for reviewing, and Key lime pie to anyone who reviews this chapter! **

**Oh, also, I forgot to put the Disclaimer into the last three chapters, so here we go-**

**I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR HARRY POTTER! UNFORTUNATLEY, I THINK THEY OWN ME. **

_**Chapter summary- Danny, Sam, and Tucker show their parents the letters, but none of them are quite as believing as their children are. But when indisputable proof is offered up right under their noses, will they still be able to deny?**_

"Danny, I really don't think this is anything more than a practical joke. Everyone knows magic doesn't _really _exist."

Danny crossed his arms in a huff. He'd been arguing with his parents for almost half an hour about weather the letter was real or not. Danny wasn't even sure he believed the words that were coming out of his own mouth, it just didn't seem right that they were dismissing the letter out of hand like another piece of annoying junk mail.

"Some people would say the same thing about ghosts," he pointed out, picking moodily at the scrambled eggs he was eating for breakfast (Jazz had cooked, which was why he felt safe enough to put the eggs near his mouth).

"Well then they'd be wrong, wouldn't they?" Asked his mom.

"So why can't you be wrong about this?"

"Because I'm your mother, and I say so. Now finish your eggs."

Danny sighed but finished his eggs.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

"I told you it was a bad idea," Sam said half an hour later, taking a bite out of her Nasty Soy Melt (The healthy alternative to the classic Nasty Burger!) Danny and Tucker sulked across from her, Danny for being ignored by his parents, and Tucker for being grounded for letting an animal 'more than likely to have rabies or other unhealthy parasites' out of the trap. The only reason he was out of the house was because his mom, who worked with an insurance company that had the Nasty Burger as a client, and didn't trust Tucker to be more than fifty yards away from her during the meeting she was at now.

"Whatever," Danny muttered, taking a moody bite out of a Nasty Burger, slouching back in his seat. "But now we still have the same problem- what do we do?"

They pondered in silence for a moment. Nothing came to mind. Finally Sam gasped and grabbed her letter, which she had had been carrying around with her since that morning when she showed it to her parents. "Look at this!" She pointed to a line, and Danny and Tucker both leaned over to read it.

_If you accept, someone will be by to take you for your things and then to a place you can work on catching up on school work you have missed for the rest of the summer on June 15th._

"Of course!" said Danny excitedly. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

"What?" asked Tucker, still not getting it.

"Someone's going to come to our houses on June 15th"-

"That's the day after tomorrow," Sam interrupted.

"Right, the day after tomorrow," Danny agreed, "And they should probably be able to make our parents believe in all this!"

"Oh…" said Tucker, realization finally hitting him. "So we just have to make sure our parents are home on then."

"Agreed," said his two best friends. They would have talked more, but Mrs. Foley's meeting had ended, and Tucker was forced to leave.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

It was two days later, and Danny was pacing nervously around his room, his mind plagued with questions. What if no one came? What if it was all some big practical joke? And, the most disturbing question of all, what if someone _did _come, and proved that magic was real?

At a quarter to nine (yes, in the morning. Danny had been so nervous he had hardly gotten three hours of sleep the night before, and had woken up at 8:00), the thing Danny was both dreading and anticipating came.

The doorbell rang.

**Ok, I wasn't going to end it there, but I wanted to ask you guys something. Should the person who comes to take Danny, Sam, and Tucker be **

**a) Hagrid**

**b) McGonagall**

**c) Dumbledore**

**It's all up to you guys, so… review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ok, this is the chapter where we _finally_ meet Harry and co. Well, mostly co, Harry doesn't come in until later. **

**I didn't want to write this chapter with Danny and his friends so I could give as many people as possible the chance to vote, so… Introducing Harry Potter!**

**I also don't know how to spell Kreacher's name, so sorry if it's wrong.**

"Ronald! Ronald, wake _up_, already!"

A grunt.

"Ronald!"

"Go away."

"Not until you wake up!"

"I am up."

"No you're not."

Another grunt.

Hermione Granger sighed, surveying the sleeping form of one of her best friends, Ron Weasly. He slept with one hand draped over the edge of the bed; a thin trail of drool connected him to his pillow. Seeing the Chudley Cannons bedspread Ron had insisted on taking from the burrow, she grinned wickedly.

Three minutes later, Ron was jolted rudely out of sleep as he fell off the bed and onto the floor. Looking up, he saw Hermione standing over him, the bedspread he'd been lying on top of held in her hands.

"What'd you go and do that for?" he asked her, wincing as she lit up her wand, the bright light burning his half closed eyes.

"You wouldn't wake up."

"Well I only got to bed…" he glanced at the clock, which read 9:57, "five hours ago!"

Hermione looked at him, slightly surprised. "Well what were you doing up that late in the first place?"

"Kreacher came in at Midnight and it took me ages to get the sight of him out of my brain, and then when I finally did, he started muttering right outside my door! I had nightmares all night."

Hermione opened her mouth and Ron winced, ready for another long lecture about S.P.E.W., but Hermione had something different on her mind. "Well, I hope you're awake enough to start tutoring the new kids."

Ron gazed blankly at her, and she sighed. "Don't you remember? There are three kids from America starting Hogwarts this year, and we're supposed to catch them up."

Ron looked at her. "They're taking them _here_? To the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix?"

Hermione nodded. "I was surprised to, but your mother says that Dumbledore probably thinks it's safe since they've never even _heard _of magic before they got their letters."

"It still doesn't sound like very good reasoning to me," Ron muttered, but Hermione deigned not to hear him.

**Ok, I know it's short… like I said, I just wanted to wait a while so people could vote. Next chapter will definitely be longer.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! My internet's down, so I can't see who did… but key lime pie to everyone who did anyway!**

**Ok, I am officially closing the poll with the results at-**

**Dumbledore- 2**

**Hagrid- 2**

**McGonagall- 3**

**Don't care- 1**

**So McGonagall it is! I've never written anything with her in it before, so I'm really looking forward to it! Anyway, on with the chapter!**

"Danny, can you get the door?" Jack Fenton bellowed from his place on the living room couch… 10 feet away from the front door. Danny raced down the stairs, and Jazz followed a bit more slowly, as she had heard nothing of the argument about the letter, and Danny had not warned her to expect anything out of the ordinary.

Standing on the doorstep was a middle aged woman in a gray dress. "Mr. Fenton, I presume," she said stiffly in a British accent, holding out her hand.

Danny nodded. "Um… and you are…?"

"Professor McGonagall." She swept past him into the house, fixing her gaze on Jack, Maddie, and Jazz. "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, a pleasure. And you would be…"

She looked at Jazz, who said, "I'm Jazz…"

There would have been a very uncomfortable silence here, if Jack Fenton had not been in the room. He bounced up from the couch, priming an ecto-weapon, shouting, "Get out of my house, you ghost!"

"Um, dad"- Danny interrupted, but his father hushed him.

"Danny, quiet, can't you see I'm busy right now?"

"But dad, that's not"-

"Don't you think I know a ghost when I see one? That's a ghost all right!"

Danny sighed, but there was no arguing with his dad when he got in one of his 'moods', as his mom put it. Jack grabbed a random ghost weapon from the back of a chair, pointed it at professor McGonagall, and pressed the large red button. A large quantity of green goopy stuff squirted out and coated her. She looked at Jack with an expression that seemed capable of melting him.

"If this is not a good time," she said in a biting tone, "I can come back later."

Maddie walked up to the woman, sighing and apologizing. "I'm really sorry about Jack. He can be like a big child sometimes. Now… who are you again?"

"I'm here to see if your son has chosen to accept the offer to attend Hogwar"-

Maddie was suddenly frowning. "Oh, not _that_ again. Can't you people just drop it? _Everyone _knows magic doesn't exist."

McGonagall frowned, "I don't have time for this. I have two more students to find before we can return to England. Now watch."

She reached into an inner pocket, retrieving a long thin stick.

A wand?

Pointing the wand at herself, she said, "Scurgify!" and the green goop Jack had fired at her was siphoned into the wand. All four Fentons watched in silence.

Jack was the first one to speak. "GHOST! GHOST WITH A STICK! ATTACK THE GHOST WITH A STICK!

"Jack, no!" Maddie said, managing somehow to hold him back. She turned to Professor McGonagall again, and said "I'm sorry for the rude treatment. Now, what did you come here for again?"

The older woman sighed in a way visitors had in the Fenton house- a way that suggested they couldn't leave soon enough.

"Exactly what the letter said. To take your son to get his things for school and then somewhere he can make up for the four years of training he missed. If he wants to, that is."

Two hours, seventeen cries of "GHOST WITH A STICK!", and at _least_ two headaches later, Professor McGonagall left the Fenton house with Danny in tow.

Things were hardly better at the Manson's or Foley's house, but another hour and a half later all four of them stood in a deserted ally around a battered old tin can.

The three teens were baffled, but each made sure they were touching the can as their companion counted,

"Three, two, one."

America vanished, or possibly it was the four grouped around the can that had suddenly disappeared.

**Sorry for the chapter shortness, it's been a while since the last chapter, and I just wanted to get this out. Plus it was mostly transitional anyway, so… hopefully chapter seven will be longer.**

**Flying green ninja dancers to anyone who reviews!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks to ghostlover15, Shiva the Sarcastic, silverstagebeauty, Sasia93, Nonasuki-Chan, PotterPhan21, lil' munkies, and epobbp! Flying green ninjas to all! Squee! 8 reveiwers! I'm so blessed! Unfortunatley, I think this chapter will be a dissapointment to everyone. Still not much action, no villians yet... Next chapter I swear we're going to see the villians do some plotting, plus some major 'cleaning' in Grimauld place. On a side note, I don't have Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with me, so sorry if I describe things wrong, particularly Grimauld place (Which coincidentally I can't spell, so sorry if I got that wrong too).**

There were three loud thumps, and then a lighter one, and three teens lay sprawled on the dirty grass, an older woman standing over them.

Danny got to his feet first; a year or so of ghost fighting had taught him that staying on the ground was never a very good idea. He reached down to help Sam up, and Tucker watched with a grin at the blush forming on both their faces. They were so obviously made for each other, and everyone seemed to know it… except for them.

Danny looked around. They were in an empty street, a number of rather decrepit looked houses looming over them like dark rain clouds warning of an impending storm.

"Come on," said the woman, and started walking towards number 11… or was it 13? No, it was the space between numbers 11 and 13.

McGonagall stopped abruptly, and Tucker walked into her. Glaring at him a little, she handed him a piece of paper, and said, "Read. Memorize."

Danny and Sam looked over Tucker's shoulder to read,

_The headquarters of the order of the phoenix can be found at number twelve, Grimauld place._

"What the heck…?"

"Think about what you just read."

The three teens looked at each other skeptically. "But what good will that d"-

"Just do it. You'll see in a moment."

They shrugged and did. Suddenly they gasped as a _house _appeared between numbers 11 and 13. Number 12. McGonagall was already heading inside, and Danny Sam and Tucker hurried after her.

Inside, they found… nothing. A dark hallway, a few gloomy oil lamps. No people. Danny, Sam, and Tucker looked at Professor McGonagall expectantly, but she was turning back around. "Well, now that you're here, I have to leave. I have important business to attend to elsewhere."

Tucker asked, "But what are we supposed to do?"

His question was answered the next moment as a red-haired woman came running up to them from somewhere in the dark shadows past the door. "Hello!" she said, and all three were surprised to see that she spoke in a whisper. "I'm Molly Weasly, and you three must be Danny, Sam, and Tucker, if you could just come this way… Unfortunately, I have to be at a meeting soon, but my son Ronald and his friend Hermione are up there, so they will probably be able to explain a few things. Just up those stairs there, and through the second door on your right."

The three of them looked at each other and shrugged then headed up the stairs. "Second door on the right, she said?" Tucker asked the other two. Danny nodded. They opened the door, where they saw a girl and a boy about their age were sitting on a bed talking about something. They fell silent suddenly when they noticed that Danny, Sam, and Tucker had entered the room. The girl spoke first.

"Um… I'm Hermione… This is Ron… You're the new students?"

"Yea, I'm Sam, and this is Tucker and Danny," said Sam. "Where _is _this place?"

Hermione said, "Somewhere in London. It's the headquarters for this organization called the order of the phoenix…"

"Well, what do they do?"

Hermione spent the next hour explaining to the other three about Voldemort's reign of terror, and how he'd returned from the dead just before the end of the last school year.

When they were done, Hermione said, "But that's enough about that, where are you guys from?"

"America. This place in California called Amity Park. You've probably never heard of it"-

Ron was laughing, "Amity Park? You're kidding!"

Danny blinked. "No. Why?"

"My dad is obsessed with technology and stuff, and he's always talking about these Fenton people invented all this weird stuff to help catch _ghosts_ of all things! Can you believe that?"

"Um, yea," said Danny, "They're my _parents_."

Ron stopped laughing. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that, I mean, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with- Oh just forget it."

Danny smiled. "Don't worry, I get that all the time. Most people don't apologize, though."

There was an awkward silence, then, Sam said, "Those letters we got said we were supposed to go somewhere to get our things to start school…"

Ron shrugged. "McGonagall was supposed to take you today, but she has to do something important for the order. Someone's probably going to take you tomorrow, but since we don't have our supply lists yet you'll probably just get your robes and wands."

There was another awkward silence, and then there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Weasly opened it. "If you three want to come downstairs now, dinner's almost ready."

Ron jumped up from the bed. "Great! I'm starving!"

"I hope there's meat!" said Tucker, following Ron out the door.

"Don't you DARE eat more innocent animals, you carnivore!" Sam yelled at him, running after the two of them.

Danny caught Hermione's eye and they shrugged at each other before following the other three downstairs.

They stopped in the room that the front door opened into. "Um… what are we doing here?" Tucker asked no one in particular.

Hermione answered, "This house is really old, and it hasn't been lived in for years. Most of the rooms have weird animals living in them, and so far we've only managed to clean out three of the bedrooms. We're doing the kitchen tomorrow, but until then, it's not safe to have too many people down there. We've just been eating upstairs."

Sure enough, a minute or so later, Mrs. Weasly came upstairs bearing a plate of sandwiches, all of which Sam wrinkled her nose at. "Mrs. Weasly, can I have something without meat? I'm an ultra-recyclo vegetarian."

"What?" Ron muttered to Tucker, who had a bored look on his face, as though he'd heard this many times before.

"She doesn't eat anything with a face," Tucker muttered back. "One time, she made the entire menu at our school ultra-recyclo vegetarian. It was horrible! All they served was mud and grass on bread!"

The two shuddered unanimously.

Mrs. Weasly frowned. "But you're so skinny! You need some meat on those bones."

"But that's eating innocent animals!"

"Well, unfortunately I'm not going back down to that kitchen until tomorrow morning, so if you want anything to eat, I suggest you eat this."

Sam glowered and stomped up the stairs, grumbling angrily.

"Sam, not so loud!" Both Weaslys and Hermione hissed together. Danny and Tucker looked at each other in confusion. Why should it matter how loud Sam was being?

Less than fifteen seconds later, they found out. One of the many curtains on the walls around them that all three American teens had failed to notice earlier, and saw that behind it, a woman was screaming at the top of her lungs- one high, long uninterrupted note.

"Shut up you asdfg!" **(AN- It must be noted that this short series of random letters is a replacement for a much ruder series of letters that I am omitting because I'm not sure exactly what I can put in a K+ story) **He ran over to the painting and yanked the curtains covering it shut. Instantly the screaming stopped.

"This place gets more and more confusing by the second," Tucker muttered to Danny.

"Who are you?" Sam asked from the top of the stairs.

"Sirius Black," the man answered. "I own this house, unfortunately."

He scowled, and Danny and Tucker shot surprised looks at each other. Sure the house was a little strange, and the screaming painting definitely wouldn't be going in a realty brochure any time soon, but why was he so bitter about owning the house?

"Um… It's nice to meet you," said Danny. There was something strange about this man that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He had the air of someone who has seen unbearable sorrow.

"And… let's go upstairs!" said Ron, charging upstairs, and promptly crashing into an older boy not much taller than him, but obviously a couple years older.

"_Hi_-ya Ronnie! How ya doin' today?" He caught sight of the three American teens at the bottom of the stairs. "Hey George! Look who's here!" Another boy who looked identical to the first, and a girl (Also with red hair, Danny noticed. He was beginning to expect it) about a year younger appeared behind him. "Ronnie's got some new friends."

Ron, now a bright red color, muttered, "Danny, Sam, Tucker, these are my brothers, Fred and George, and my sister Ginny. Fred, George, Ginny, this is Danny, Sam, and Tucker."

"Nice t'meet ya. If you're ever in need of a couple of pranksters, call Weasly's Wizard Whee- oh! Hi mom! Well, we'd better get going!"

Three seconds and a loud crash later, Fred and George were gone.

After a moment or two of silence, Tucker said, "So should we start on those sandwiches then?"

**Like I said, not much action. I like to ramble a lot. XP **

**Hmm... metal amphibians with removable four chambered hearts to anyone who reveiws. Or chocolate cookies. Whichever you prefer. XP**


	8. Chapter 8

**Ok, as promised, the villains finally appear in this chapter! Woot! Ha ha I pity You-Know-Who so much for having to put up with _this_ guy all the time!**

**As a side note, **_IIIIIIIIII taking place with the villains_

IIIIIIIIIIIIII-taking place at Grimauld place or with Danny/Sam/Tucker

_**IIIIIIIIIIIIII-taking place at Privet Drive**_

**And… cookies to ghostlover15, HazelCloud, epobbp, nonasuki-chan, and PotterPhan2, amphibians to Lady Jarine… lil' munkies, Shiva the sarcastic, Sweeteen19, and Lunagurl101 get… hmmm... you didn't choose… I guess you get… cookies! Cookies it is!**

**This chapter's reviewers get… One free wish courtesy of Desiree! If I can find her…**

"_Ha ha! I, Technus (3.0), master of science and electrical technology, all things that flash and beep, have found an escape from the ghost zone at last, and am now free to destroy that annoying ghost child who has foiled my plans once too often, and then take over the world! Ha ha ha! Come to me, my mion-i-ons of technology!"_

_The two other men (If either of them could be called human in the first place) in the room looked up as the white-haired ghost appeared in the room though a swirling green portal that disappeared a moment later, from what both recognized (although only one of them had ever been there before) as the ghost zone._

"_I have finally managed to find a way to get into the human world as I wish! That ghost boy stands no chance against me!"_

"_Plasmius, what kind of practical joke is this?" hissed one. The other scowled. _

"_It's Technus. Self proclaimed ghost master of all electronics, and, unfortunately, a rather large threat."_

"_You surprise me," said the first in a cool tone, one slender eyebrow arched over one dull red eye. "I would have thought that one as… talented… as you could manage an idiot like him."_

_Plasmius bristled at the implied threat. "I did not mean that he is a threat to me, my lord, I was talking about others. He controls electronics and things like that. The muggle population is hardly able to function whenever he comes back with one of his new plots to take over the world."_

"_You don't say," murmured his companion, a calculating glint in his eye. "In that case…" he turned to look Plasmius directly in the eye, "Thank you for your assistance, but I no longer required your help."_

_He withdrew a long wood stick from a pocket of the black robes he wore, waved it at Plasmius. "Stupify!" Plasmius' eyes rolled back and he fell backwards. "Now you, on the other hand," said the man quietly, turning to the still ranting spirit, "You could be of assistance to me."_

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

"**_Ahhh!" Miles and miles away, a fifteen year old boy by the name of Harry Potter awoke, startled. This had been happening more and more since Voldemort, the most evil dark wizard in a hundred years. Mostly he just had nightmares about long dark corridors with locked door, but this time had been different._**

_**Voldemort was in a dark room somewhere, with a man, probably about forty years old or so… and then there was someone else… But who? He remembered faintly an annoying scratchy voice speaking, but what it was saying he had no idea.**_

_**He sighed. It was no use. The dream was gone.**_

_**He turned back to his bed, wary of falling asleep again if it would end in more disturbing dreams he couldn't explain, but eventually exhaustion overcame him, and he gave in.**_

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

"Danny, wake up!"

"What?" Danny sat up, almost crashing his head into Ron's, who had been poking him in an attempt to wake him up. Automatically he scanned the room, before realizing that the only two ghost portals in existence were on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and the chances of a ghost being in the room were very slim.

"Mum's sent breakfast up, and then she wants us in the kitchen. We're cleaning it today."

Danny made a face. "Cleaning?"

Ron grimaced. "Not just dusting or whatever. There are things living down there, and if we want to be able to eat anything besides sandwiches. That's all Mum'll make right now, 'cause she doesn't like staying alone in there too long."

Danny sighed. "I'll be down in a second; I'll just wake Tucker up…"

"I can do that," said Ron, but Danny grabbed him. "That's _really_ not a good idea. You have to do it a certain way or he thinks your trying to steal his precious PDA. I still have black and blue marks from the last time I tried."

Ron looked nervous. "Um… Ok, why don't you do that? I'll wait downstairs." He ran out of the room.

Danny walked over to the bed where Tucker was sleeping (One of three beds in the room, the other two for Danny and Ron)

"Tucker, guess what?" he asked in a falsely cheery voice.

"Mmmmph."

"I found a SmartTech9000 under your pillow!"

"Mmmmph?"

"Yea! I've got it right here."

"Gimme gimme gimme gimme!"

Danny laughed, "Tucker, how many times have you fallen for that in the last month?"

"12," Tucker muttered. "Why'd you have to go and wake me up anyway? I was having this awesome dream about"-

Danny interrupted him, "No offense or anything, but your dreams aren't really that normal. Ron just came up and said we have to clean the kitchen today."

"Clean?" Tucker asked, disgusted.

"That's what I said. Apparently no one's lived here for ages, and stuff's started growing all over the place."

"Still doesn't sound like all that much fun to me," Tucker muttered.

Five minutes later, Danny and Tucker (now fully dressed), met Sam outside the bedroom she was staying in with Hermione and Ginny, and the three headed downstairs, almost crashing into Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny who were halfway down the stairs, apparently listening to the three adults standing on the landing below. The three of them stopped and listened too.

There were three adults, Mrs. Weasly, who they recognized from the night before, a redheaded man who, if the rest of the red-headed Weasly family was anything to go by, was her husband, and Professor McGonagall.

"We last had contact from him last week, but now we have no idea where idea where he is." Professor McGonagall was saying softly.

Mrs. Weasly nodded, and said, "You'd think a half ghost like Masters could gain You-Know-Who's trust, bbut apparently not."

Danny looked at Tucker and Sam, and then muttered, "Vlad?" How did they know Vlad? And, more importantly, if they knew he was half ghost, did they know he was too?

**Ok, pretty bad chapter, I know. My only excuse is a severe case of writer's block. Next chapter will be up next Monday, most probably.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to Lost Demon Soul, PotterPhan21, ghostlover15, LadyJarine, sweeteen19, and lil' munkies for reviewing! And about Desiree… he he… she kind of didn't like the idea of getting sucked into a Fenton Thermos…. Sorry!**

**Desiree- Of course I don't want to get sucked in there! It's like six inches long!**

**Yea, yea, whatever, I've heard it all before. Anyway, sorry 'bout that… you get a fast update instead, and Harry finally gets some real action!**

Suddenly George (Or was it Fred?) stiffened. "Oh no," he muttered, "Mum's spotted us."

"_What _are you lot doing there?"

All of them flinched as her shrill voice reached them, and those who had heard or been subjected to Mrs. Weasly's rants before readied themselves for the impending doom, but thankfully help arrived in the form of the black-haired man Danny, Tucker, and Sam had first met the night before.

"Molly, you can't blame them for wanting to know what's been going on," he said, crossing his arms and staring at her.

"Come on," George muttered, "We should leave now while she's distracted."

"But I'm hungry," Tucker protested in a whisper.

"Don't worry, Mum'll bring breakfast up when she's done here," Fred answered, starting to walk back up the stairs.

"Plus, the longer she's arguing with Sirius, the longer it'll e before we have to start on the kitchen," Ron added.

"I'm all for that," Danny said, following them up.

They all went into the boy's room and closed the door.

"What did the mean about Masters being half ghost?" Danny asked, feigning innocence.

Ron shrugged, and then said, "It's really weird, actually. See, when he was in college"-

Hermione sighed, "Ron, you know that's not the whole story."

Ron blinked at her. "It's not?"

Hermione sighed, probably at his ignorance, and shook her head. "No," she said, "It's not. It actually started about nine years earlier, when he got his letter from Hogwarts."

Danny asked, "You mean he's a wizard?"

Hermione nodded, and Danny looked at Tucker and Sam in confusion. This new information raised all kinds of interesting questions. The one that rose to the top of his mind, however, was- If Vlad was a wizard that whole time he was fighting me, why aren't I dead yet?

Hermione continued, apparently oblivious to the confusion on all three faces, "Anyway, he got his letter from Hogwarts, and his parents were really freaked out, because they didn't like magic _at all_."

"Sort of like the Dursleys," Ron added.

"These people my friend Harry stays with. His parents were killed when he was a baby, and they're his closest living relations. They kept him locked in a broom cupboard until he left for Hogwarts."

"So eventually Vlad ended up going to Hogwarts, and he did really well there," Hermione continued.

"Yea, but he was also sorted into Slytherin, wasn't he?" Ginny asked, in a tone that made Danny, Tucker and Sam think that whatever this 'Slytherin' was, it was not a good thing.

"What's Slytherin?" Tucker asked.

"One of the four houses at Hogwarts. Turned out more dark wizards and witches than all three other houses combined," George answered.

"And besides Slytherin, there's Gryffindor, that's the house we're in, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff."

"So Vlad was sorted into Slytherin, so what?" Hermione asked. "That doesn't mean he's necessarily evil.

Ron shrugged. "I dunno I just don't trust that guy. He seems a bit dodgy, if you ask me."

"Dumbledore obviously trusts him, if he's spying on Voldemort for the order," Hermione argued.

"Yea, but he also trusts Snape," Ron grumbled in a soft voice. Hermione either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him, because she continued, "But he was a really good student, I mean, top marks, and all that. He was a prefect too. But then he went home after his seventh year, and his parents were all upset because they didn't think what he was doing was real magic, and he was just wasting their money humoring a punch of lunatics, and they made him go to some muggle college."

"The University of Wisconsin," Danny supplied.

"How'd you know that?" Ron asked, and Danny shrugged.

"My parents went to college with him."

"Yea, I think he mentioned your Mum a few times," Ginny said. "Never your dad, though."

"Strange," Sam said wryly.

"Yea, so while he was there he had some sort of accident and got turned into a half ghost. Apparently his Dad just died, so he came back to London recently offering to help with the war."

"It's really bad that he's disappeared," George said seriously, and although he'd just met him the night before, Danny could already tell that he wasn't serious very often.

"You know what I'm thinking?" Ron said excitedly, "I bet that other halfa tipped You-know-who off that Vlad was a spy!"

Danny went pale. "What other halfa?"

"There's this other ghost that's been bothering Vlad for about a year. He won't tell any of us who he is, but he's given Vlad a couple of really nasty injuries and even tore apart his lab once."

"To be fair, Vlad _was _trying to clone him," Hermione added.

"Yea, I guess. I still say he's out to get him, though," Ron said.

"But if he wants to destroy Vlad how come he hasn't just done it while he was sleeping or something?" Ginny asked.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker looked at each other and sighed as the conversation deteriorated into the kind of argument they'd heard many times back in Amity.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

It was almost fifteen minutes later when Mrs. Weasly came upstairs, bearing a plate of assorted breakfast foods, including some fruit for Sam. "Eat that, and then meet me in the kitchen." She turned around and walked out of the room. The others resigned to spending the rest of the day involved in the torture casually referred to as 'cleaning' sighed and reached for the plate.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Back at Privet Drive, Harry Potter had finally had enough. Hadn't he been the one in the graveyard, watching Cedric die? Hadn't he been the one to save the sorcerer's stone, kill the Basilisk, and uncover the truth behind his godfather's arrest?

And now he was being left to rot at Privet Drive, like some over-ripe banana.

So he was leaving.

It was almost midnight now, and Harry had just finished packing the last of his school things (He was immensely grateful that the Dursleys let him keep his things in his room now, since he still hadn't quite found the time to tell them that Sirius was innocent), and had managed to drag his trunk down the front drive, when he heard it.

An odd voice, somewhere above him, saying "Hello, child!"

He looked up, surprised, instinctively drawing his wand… which he almost dropped when he saw who had spoken. Or _what_ had spoken. It was… well, in all honesty, it could only be described as a floating pile of machinery. Of course, Harry was about to learn more about this mysterious voice than he would ever wish to.

"I am Technus!" said the voice, which Harry noticed was very annoying, "Ghost master of science and e-lec-tric-al technology! Master of all things that flash and beep!"

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked. It was all he could think of to say at the moment.

"I am here on the orders of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, to kill the last one who stands in his way, and I intend to do just that!"

Suddenly he stopped. "I just did it again, didn't I?" he asked.

Harry was confused. "Did what?"

"Gave away my plans. Ah well! I shall have to kill you now!"

He dove towards Harry, who did the first thing he could think of- a banishing charm, which repelled the strange thing, throwing him back, and out of sight.

Adding this event to the long list of things he intended to ask when he saw Dumbledore again, he pocketed his wand, and reached down to pick up his trunk. But just then, something completely, totally, and horribly awful happened.

A voice from behind him cried, "You're a _wizard_?"

**Ok, I hope that made up for Desiree getting away. Next chapter gets- um… A purple backed gorilla!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to all reviewers! Purple backed gorillas to Shiva the sarcastic, sweeteen19, mom2dl, Lady Jarine, lil' munkies, epobbp, Lunagurl101, and nonasuki-chan!**

**Also, I love the idea of a gorilla in the Fenton Crammer, so mini-gorillas it is!**

**And just in case this causes some confusion, the end of the last chapter (The part with Harry) takes place around the same time as Harry's attacked by dementors in the real book, and this chapter starts off that same night with Harry, and then continues into the next day. If you're still confused, tell me in a review.**

**Ok, now the moment you've all been waiting for… who found out that Harry's a wizard?**

"You're a _wizard_?"

Harry whirled around, his heart thumping in his chest. This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening…

It was…

He turned around to see ten-year-old Mark Evans, resident geek of the neighborhood, come running over to him. "This is so cool! I'vealwayswantedtomeetarealwizardandyouareoneandthisissocool!" Harry blinked in confusion. Mark had an annoying habit of talking incredibly fast when he got exited or nervous, and at those times it was almost impossible to interpret what he was saying.

"ThisissoincredibleI'mgoingtotellmymomandmysisterandmybestfreindNedand"-

"Wait," Harry interrupted, "You can't tell anyone!"

Mark stopped, which was a miracle unto itself, and asked, confused, "Why? This is the coolest thing I've ever seen!"

Harry paused, contemplating how best to explain why he couldn't tell anyone to a ten year old boy, "Because"- he started, but never got a chance to finish.

"Obliviate!" yelled a voice, and Harry looked up, surprised to see Arthur Weasly on the other side of the street.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

"Ron, stop it! Ronald, stop, no!" Danny walked into the bedroom where the five of them (Him, Ron, Hermione, Tucker, and Sam) were supposed to be cleaning (Fred and George having been temporarily confined to their room on account of Mrs. Weasly finding their extendable ears and guessing what the twins had been doing with them over the summer, along with Ginny, mainly because _nobody _thought it was a good idea to leave Fred and George alone), so it was just the five of them and Mrs. Weasly cleaning that day.

Although, in actual reality, Tucker was attempting to rescue his PDA from Sam, who was threatening to crush it if he didn't turn the volume down (Not an idle threat either, considering she'd done it twice in the past six months), and Ron and Hermione were having a fight with a wet sponge they were supposed to be cleaning the window with while Mrs. Weasly was downstairs doing something.

The doorbell rang, and all five teens glanced at each other and hurried to the top of the stairs where they could see who was coming in, and hopefully eavesdrop a little.

The painting of the woman Danny now knew was Sirius' mom started howling and screaming, and Sirius hurried to push them shut while Mrs. Weasly opened the door to let a worried Remus Lupin in.

They whispered for a few moments, and then Mrs. Weasly said loudly, "He DIDN'T!"

Lupin nodded, and the five teens looked at each other in confusion.

"And now the ministry wants him to come to a hearing? For defending himself?" Mrs. Weasly asked, shock in her voice.

"Who's she talking about, do you reckon?" Ron muttered, but no one had an answer.

Later that afternoon, when the bedroom was clean, they five gathered in the bedroom Ron, Danny, and Tucker were sharing. About a week after Danny, Sam, and Tucker had arrived at the headquarters of the order of the phoenix, Mrs. Weasly had taken them down to Diagon Alley, where they'd traded in some muggle money (provided by their parents) for the heavy coins used as currency by wizards, then gotten wands and robes and the other things they'd need for the school year.

Besides this, Sam had gotten a barn owl she named Apollo, after the Greek god of prophecy, insisting that the cage they were keeping him in was animal cruelty. It was Apollo who, a week after that brought a package from Danny's parents containing some invention that was apparently supposed to make a portal in and out of the ghost zone at will, and some fudge. Danny had shared the fudge with the others, but had kept the porta-portal hidden, just in case.

Since they'd gotten their school things Hermione had insisted on starting to tutor Danny, Sam, and Tucker in what they'd missed by not going to Hogwarts for four years. None of them were as good at any subject as Hermione, but with her help they were slowly managing to get themselves up to date.

But on this particular afternoon, no sooner had the four of them taken out their wands, than Mrs. Weasly had knocked on the door. "I just wanted to let you know that Harry's coming to stay for the rest of the summer sometime tonight."

"Wait, what?" Ron jumped off his bed and said, "I thought you weren't going to pick him up until next week!" Mrs. Weasly sighed. "There have been a few complications… I'm sure Harry will tell you all about them when he gets here."

"How is he getting here?" Hermione asked, slightly more calmly than Ron.

"Some of the order is taking broomsticks out there. I have to go down and start making dinner now, if you don't mind."

She closed the door, and Hermione, completely forgetting about the lesson, started talking anxiously to Ron.

Sam looked at Danny, and rolled her eyes at the look on his face. "Danny," she whispered so Ron and Hermione wouldn't hear them, "You can't be thinking about flying out there with them! They already hate you, thanks to Vlad, what do you think they'll do if they find you?"

Danny whispered back, "Why not? I go invisible and fly behind them. They'll never know."

Sam shook her head. "It just doesn't seem like a good idea. And what if they notice you're gone? I mean, it's not like there's that many places to hide in this place."

Danny sighed. "I guess not."

But he couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something incredibly important.


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks to lil' munkies, Shiva the sarcastic, Rambie, sweeteen19, PotterPhan21, Nonasuki-Chan, epoppb, and ghostlover15 for reviews! Hmmm… this chapter's reviewers get a package of skittles! All the fruity sugary goodness can be yours for just one measly review!**

**Also thanks to sweeteen19 and ghostlover15 for pointing out my mistake in this chapter! **

"So, you don't think I'm stupid for doing this?" Danny asked Tucker an hour or so later, when they were alone (Everyone else was downstairs talking to some old man with a white beard and hair Mrs. Weasly said was Albus Dumbledore). Tucker shook his head.

"Do I think you following them to see this Harry kid is stupid? No. Do I think it's pointless? Yes. We're going to meet him either tonight or tomorrow anyway, so what's the point?"

Danny shrugged. How could he explain that somehow he just felt like he _had _to be there? "Maybe you're right," he admitted, and Tucker nodded.

"I'm going downstairs," he said, and left.

Danny grinned. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to do it," he added, and let the two blue-white rings of light sweep over him, changing him into his alter-ego, Danny Phantom. He was about to drop intangibly through the floor, when his ghost senses, so much more acute than any humans, became aware that someone was standing behind him, and he turned around, priming an ecto-blast in his hand from force of habit.

From out of the shadows along the wall stepped Albus Dumbledore. Danny was terrified. How much had he seen? What would he do now? Danny contemplated flying as fast as he could in the other direction, but didn't think that would be a very good idea.

"A pleasure to meet you, Daniel," Dumbledore said, inclining his head slightly to the teen floating about three feet above him.

Utterly confused by the man's reaction, Danny floated back to Earth, and said, "Its Danny. Not Daniel." It was all he could think of to say at the moment. "How long have you been"-

"Standing there? Quite a while." Danny gulped. This was exactly what he didn't want to hear.

"So, aren't you going to tear me apart molecule by molecule, or something?" He asked, nervously. Dumbledore chuckled.

"Why on Earth would I do that?" He asked. "I won't tell anyone your secret, Mr. Fenton. But…" And here, Danny noticed a strange look pass over Dumbledore's face, as though he was planning to say something, but had decided against it. Noticing Danny looking at him curiously, he continued, "When you come to school, I think I would like to see you. There is much that we need to discuss…"

Danny nodded. _Anything,_ as long as this strange old man would keep his secret. He looked at Danny over the top of the half-moon glasses he wore, and added with a slight smile, "I would advise you, however, to remain here this evening while the others go to retrieve Mr. Potter."

Danny nodded, and just like that, Dumbledore was gone.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Late that night, Danny (Always a light sleeper), was yanked back to reality by the sound of the door creaking. He jolted up in bed and came face to face with a boy, about the same height as him, with black hair and green eyes.

They stared at each other for a minute or more, Danny's brain too sleep-heavy to make the connection between this boy and Harry Potter, and Harry obviously having no idea who Danny was.

The silence was broken by Pigwegeon flying in through the window (It was one of the few nights the owls were allowed out) and hooting shrilly. Ron and Tucker woke up, and noticed Harry standing there.

The next few minutes were amazingly chaotic. The desk in the corner of the room was somehow upset and almost toppled over, Ron had almost crushed Tucker's PDA and he'd gone after him with an old magazine he then proceeded to hit him over the head with it, the blank white canvas on the wall was knocked off (Danny could have sworn he heard a cry of pain, but that couldn't be right- he knew pictures in the wizarding world could talk and move around, but plain white blocks of color couldn't… right?), and someone's pillow was ripped in two, and the feathers were scattered all over the floor.

Suddenly the atmosphere in the room became considerable colder. Danny checked around to see if there was a ghost in the room, but there was only Mrs. Weasly standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. "What are you four doing?" she asked.

"Um… saying hello to Harry?" Ron offered weakly.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Two hours later, the four of them had managed to get back into their bedroom and crash, but the few hours of sleep they had been hoping to snag before morning were quickly torn up and thrown to the winds as Hermione, Sam, and Ginny came running into the room- at 6 A.M.

"Hermione, can't you get up at 10 like anybody else on summer break?" Tucker groaned, burying his head under his pillow.

"No," Hermione laughed, pulling a chair out from the desk and sitting down.

"Who are they?" Harry asked, getting straight to the point, and gesticulating towards Tucker, Sam, and Danny.

"Oh, that's Danny, he's Tucker, and she's Sam," Hermione introduced, "Danny, Tucker, Sam, Harry."

"But why are they here?" Harry asked, confused, (Although that admittedly probably had quite a lot to do with the fact that he'd probably had no more that five hours of sleep)

Hermione explained that they were starting school that year and she and Ron had been tutoring them through the summer.

"No," Harry said when she was finished, "I mean, why are they _here_? I've been rotting at the Dursley's for months, and they just waltz in out of no where and suddenly they're the center of attention? _That_ seems incredibly fair," this last part he said wryly.

Hermione's face pinched up in worry, and she started, "Harry"- but her friend cut her off.

"Whatever, I don't really want to hear it."

He turned to the wall, and Tucker, Sam, and Danny, sensing they weren't wanted right at that moment, edged out of the room, meeting up with Mrs. Weasly at the top of the stairs.

"Oh dear, he does seem angry, doesn't he?" She asked them, and they nodded. "Ron and Hermione wanted to tell him everything, but Dumbledore told them not to, in case the owls were intercepted…

She hurried down the stairs, and Danny said softly to his two friends, "that reminds me, I met Dumbledore upstairs yesterday morning…"


	12. Chapter 12

**Skittles to Sweeteen19, ghostlover15, Sasia93, Nonasuki-Chan, SweetSeventeengurl, mom2dl, Shiva the Sarcastic, Rambie, PotterPhan21, Hei's Cute Girl, lil' munkies, Lady Jarine, and Lunagurl101, A.K.A. my wonderful reviewers! Thirteen of you this time! I'm so happy! This chapter's reviewers get a buy one get one free Nasty Burger coupon! (One per customer per visit, valid through 12/31/06, not compatible with any other offer, subject to availability) XP**

Harry avoided Danny, Sam and Tucker over the next week, during which nothing much happened (Although September the first was drawing closer and closer all the time), but on Friday he finally approached Danny as they were going down for dinner. The others had already left, and the two of them were alone in the boys' room.

Danny was already at the door when Harry said, "Danny, I wanted to apologize for how I acted when I first came here."

Danny paused, looking back at him. He didn't say anything, but he didn't leave either, and Harry continued, "I was just kind of stressed. I mean Voldemort killed my parents, and to see him come back… especially since it was my blood that _helped_ him come back… it's just hard, you know?"

Danny nodded, thinking about Dan Phantom, and said, "Yea, I know."

There was an awkward silence, and then Danny said, "So you got attacked by a ghost just before you came here?"

Harry nodded, and then said, "It was really weird. I mean, the ghosts I know are all… I dunno, different. And that ghost liked to talk, too. It took him almost fifteen seconds to introduce himself."

Danny laughed, and said, "Well who was he?"

Harry laughed too and mimicked Technus' voice, "Technus! Ghost master of science and e-lec-tric-al devices!"

"Technus?" Danny asked, "What was he doing there?"

Harry looked at him curiously. "How do you know Technus?"

Danny contemplated how much to say, then answered, "I used to live in Amity Park- the most haunted city in America. He showed up on a regular basis."

"Oh. Well he said he was sent there be Voldemort to kill me. He didn't do a very good job, obviously."

Danny tucked the worrying information that Technus was now working with Voldemort away for later to discuss with Ron and Hermione, and the two went down for dinner.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

A week after that, Danny was startled back into consciousness as something thudded onto the ground. He opened his eyes to see Harry on the other side of the room with his trunk on its side. "Sorry," he whispered so as not to wake Ron or Tucker (both of whom had proven they could sleep through just about anything) "Knocked my trunk over."

"Why're you up so early?" Danny asked, standing up and walking over to him.

"I've got that hearing thing for doing magic, remember?" Harry asked. Danny nodded.

Harry headed for the door, and deciding that he'd rather go down too than try and fall back asleep followed.

When they got to the kitchen door, Harry was about to go in, but, hearing voices on the other side, Danny stopped him. Both had been at Grimauld place long enough to know that the only way they would learn anything was to eavesdrop at any available moment.

Mrs. Weasly was saying, "I don't see why we have to tell him! He's been through so much already, how can you justify doing this"-

"Molly, we've been through this already," Another voice spoke, and Danny recognized it as Professor Dumbledore's, "I'm afraid that the time of this prophecy may be drawing nearer, and he needs to know."

"Fine, but don't blame me if it's too much for him!"

Quick footsteps approached the door, and Danny and Harry ran back to the stairs. When Molly Weasly opened it thirty seconds later, all she saw was two half asleep boys heading down for breakfast.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Danny and Harry sat at the kitchen table, looking at Professor Dumbledore as Mrs. Weasly bustled around the kitchen, making toast or bacon or some other breakfast food.

Although they didn't know it yet, the argument they had overheard earlier was about the two of them- and a certain prophecy. After discovering that Danny was a halfa, it had taken Dumbledore less than half an hour to make the connection between him and 'the in-between.'

But he hadn't told anyone else about that particular discovery. So he had been glad to see not only Harry heading down for breakfast, but Danny too.

He took the piece of parchment he had brought with the prophecy in it out of his pocket and handed it across s the table to the two of them. "I want you two to read this and tell me what you think of it."

The two boys scanned the parchment.

_Rising from a cauldron,_

_Swathed in black,_

_An enemy from past returns._

_From within another world,_

_Comes help in a new form,_

_An enemy unknown appears._

_Together seek to bring forth doom,_

_Defeated, though, by two shall be,_

_The boy who lived,_

_The in-between._

_Together rise to stop this threat,_

_Together fight,_

_Or be destroyed._

_But 'fore this sorry tale ends,_

_Two lives are gone,_

_Two hero's friend._

_Dark of storm and late at night,_

_The evil strikes,_

_As clock chimes 12,_

_At night._

"Why did you want us to read this?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore looked directly at him, and said, "Because I believe that this prophecy may be referring to you."

Danny was quiet, thinking, and Dumbledore hoped he could make the same connection he himself had.

"So what do you want me to do?" Harry asked, and Danny listened, having indeed made the connection.

"Just be on your guard. And watch for whomever this 'in-between' person is," he said. He looked right at Danny, but only the young halfa noticed.

Mr. Weasly came in to the kitchen just then, and started talking to Harry about how he would get to the hearing.

While everyone was distracted, Danny quietly slipped out, climbing the stairs to the second floor to tell Tucker and Sam exactly what he had heard and what the prophecy contained.


	13. Chapter 13

**Thanks to my reviewers ghostlover15, sasia93, Shiva the sarcastic, sweeteen19, Hei's cute girl, lil' munkies, epobbp, nonasuki-chan, darkmagiciangirl91, PotterPhan21, rambie, and lunagirl101. Nasty burger coupons to all except Shiva the Sarcastic, who gets a coupon to BORDERS.**

**Next chapter's reveiwers get a bottle of soda. Your choice what kind.**

**I finally figured out who's going to die at the end of the story! Um… I mean, I've had this all planned out since chapter one. Sweat drop Yea, It's not like I wrote down some random names during health class and then closed my eyes and pointed to two. Of course not, that would be ridiculous! XP**

**I would like to add here that J.K. Rowling usually likes to put the villain of the book into the thirteenth chapter of each one. I'm just telling you because _maybe_ I decided to do that here. Just _maybe_. XP**

Danny would always remember the rest of that summer as one of the best times he'd had since gaining ghost powers, but, like all good things in life, it ended all too quickly.

Only a few weeks after Harry returned (Cleared of all charges) from his ministry hearing, they were getting ready to leave for Hogwarts. Trunks were found for Danny, Sam, and Tucker, everyone's socks kept disappearing, and Dumbledore turned up a week before they were meant to leave to sort the three newest students into houses.

Tucker went first, taking the battered old sorting hat and putting it on his head. A minute or two the hat had screamed _"Gryffindor!"_, and Tucker had handed the hat off to Sam who was also sorted into Gryffindor.

And then it was Danny's turn.

The moment he put the hat on he heard a voice speak into his ear.

"_Well well, this is a surprise."_

Danny thought nervously, _"What's a surprise?"_

"_You. It's been thirty years since I saw a mind I couldn't read."_

"_You can't see my mind? Then how do you know what I'm thinking?"_

"_Your thoughts are not the same as your memories and personality. I can see no more than you want me to see."_

But if the hat couldn't see anything except what he was thinking, how could he be sorted? Maybe he'd need to get sent back home, and Sam and Tucker would learn how to do magic, and he'd be back home fighting ghosts and trying to pass Lancer's class and-

"_Open your mind."_

It took Danny a moment to realize that the hat was telling him what to do.

"_How do I do that?"_

"_Concentrate."_

So Danny concentrated for almost a full minute, and was about to give up hope completely and take the hat off and tell Dumbledore that maybe he wasn't made to be a wizard (Prophecy or not) when he felt something brush against his mind, and he eagerly grabbed hold of it.

It was the hat.

"_Good."_

It took the hat only about five seconds longer to pronounce him a Gryffindor.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Besides this, the day before they were supposed to leave, their supply lists came. Mrs. Weasly rushed out to get the last of their supplies… And both Ron and Hermione were chosen as prefects.

_All _of them had been shocked when Ron had opened his envelope to find a red and gold badge inside it, but no one had been particularly surprised when Hermione came in with an identical badge a minute or two after.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The next morning Danny woke to Ron saying loudly, "Get up you three, mum's downstairs and she's going ballistic, she says we're going to miss the train."

"Harry sat up and put his glasses on, and Danny reached for the clothes he would be wearing to King's Cross.

Suddenly they both turned around as Ron let out a loud, "Ow!" and a muffled curse.

"Told you not to try and wake Tucker up," Danny said laughing.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

When Danny got to the bottom of the stairs he saw Mrs. Weasly yelling at Fred and George. As he edged quickly past them, he managed to gather that Fred and George had knocked their trunks into Ginny, and knocked her flying down two flights of stairs.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

It took almost another hour to get everyone ready to go. By the time they left, everyone's tempers were beginning to run rather short.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Eventually, they arrived at King's Cross station. They dashed through the barrier (Danny, Sam, and Tucker would have been shocked by the way the others simply vanished if they hadn't been warned ahead of time) and emerged into the bustle of platform 9 ¾.

Danny noticed Harry glancing sideways at a pretty looking girl about a year older than them. And then he saw the girl _next_ to her. Blonde hair, bright blue eyes…

Sam noticed with disgust that Danny was practically drooling.

**And… that's all for today. This chapter is so short… I'm so sorry… I'm trying to plan out what's going to happen at the end of the story, planning a prequel (Which would be about Vlad's days at Hogwarts)** **which will explain some things from this story. And in case anyone was wondering, when the sorting hat mentioned that it had been thirty years since he last saw a mind he couldn't read, that _was_ important. Probably. If I ever get around to writing the prequel. If not, it's just a fun bit of back-story you can guess about in your spare time.**

**Again, sorry it's so short. I blame my social studies teacher… and my science teacher… and my math teacher… and my English teacher… hmm… now that I think about it, you can blame all my teachers for a late short update.**

**So… tell me weather you want the prequel or not. Your choice is basically me making a prequel and having a more involved story but slower updates for both, or not having a prequel and having a less involved story but quicker updates.**

**And that's it. Godbye.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Thanks to all my (15!) reviewers from chapter thirteen! Let's see, that's ghostlover15, Nonasuki-chan, lil' munkies, Sasia93, dark magician girl93, Rambie, sweeteen19, Breaking away bit by bit, PotterPhan21, epobbp, Shiva the Sarcastic, The great suskino, Lunagirl101, 1bluefur, and Lady Jarine. Sodas to everyone who asked for them, (Plus skittles to 1bluefur) and doughnuts for reviewing the next chapter.**

**Also, lots of interesting reviews for the last chapter… There was some disagreement about the prequel, so I'm going to either wait until I finish this story to start that one or ask again when this story gets around Christmas break.**

**A few of you guessed that Vlad was the one the hat couldn't read… Wrong! I'll give you two hints about who it was. First, it has something too do with Occlumency and Legilimency, and second, I used thirty years as a general term because I'm pretty sure that's around when Harry's parents were there, so I guessed that most of the people at Hogwarts now probably had parents at Hogwarts around thirty years ago. (If you think that's a completely wrong guess please tell me and I will change it!)**

**An extra thanks to anyone who has ever reviewed any chapter of this story ever. As of November 16, 2006, I have over one hundred reviews. You guys rock!**

**A few of you said the girl at the end of the chapter sounds like a Mary Sue, which I am really sorry for. Basically she's here because Paullina is not, and I like Paullina's character. Grin She's just one of those characters you love to hate. Or at least I do.**

**And I'm incredibly sorry for the late update. A combination of events beyond my control (Like Thanksgiving) and trying to make these chapters longer has made the updates kind of slow.**

**Also, I'm listening to Christmas music! Just thought I'd say that, I love the Christmas season. Grin**

**Um… I guess that's it. I won't take up any more of your time. So read!**

"What are _you_ looking at, geek?" The blonde Danny had been… looking at (Ok staring at without blinking for an unhealthy amount of time) sneered at him when she noticed.

"Um… I'm… you're… What's your name?" He finally finished lamely.

"How do you not know?" She asked, and at that moment Sam decided- She _hated_ this girl.

"Um, I'm… I'm new here," Danny said.

"Well, I'm Kierra, and you… have no chance at me." She walked off towards a compartment near the back of the train, leaving Danny with a look that Tucker called his puppy-that's-been-run-over-by-a-truck expression.

Hermione looked at the clock above the train and She, Danny, Sam, Tucker, Harry, Ron, and Ginny on-board.

As soon as the train had started up and rounded the corner, out of sight of the station, Ron and Hermione hurried off to the front of the train, where two carriages were reserved especially for the prefects. Danny, Sam, and Tucker said good-bye to Harry and Ginny, who (Danny noticed) in an empty compartment across from Kierra and the girl Harry had been looking at who seemed to be her friend.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker walked through the train, looking in every compartment they passed until they got to the very end, where Danny was almost knocked over by a boy named-

"Neville Longbottom," said the boy, bending over to retrieve his dropped things. "Sorry about that. I was just looking for a compartment, but every where's full…"

Sam pointed to the very last compartment, which was occupied by only one girl. "What about there?" She asked, "Looks like there's plenty of room."

Neville looked uncomfortable and shook his head, "I don't want to bother anyone," he mumbled.

Sam rolled her eyes. "I'm sure we won't bother her," she said, "Look, she's reading some magazine, and she probably won't even notice we're in there." And that being said, she opened the door and stepped inside, Danny and Tucker followed, and after a moment or two Neville did as well.

"Can we sit here?" Sam asked the girl, gesturing around to the numerous empty seats around her. The girl looked up at the four of them, and nodded. "Thanks," said Sam, slightly unsettled by the girl's silence, and talking quickly to cover her uneasiness.

"I'm Sam Manson, this is Danny Phantom, Tucker Foley, and… Neville Longbottom, right?" she added, pointing to Neville. He nodded.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Meanwhile, Ginny had left the compartment she'd been sitting in with Harry. It was hard to have so much as a simple conversation with him when he was spending every second staring at Cho. "Perfect, saintly Cho Chang," Ginny muttered.

Her quiet ranting was interrupted as she ran into Hermione. "Hi, Ginny," said Hermione. "Where are you going?"

Ginny shrugged. "I thought I might go find Danny, Sam, and Tucker," she said.

"Is Harry staring at Cho again?" Hermione said sympathetically.

Ginny nodded. "Where's Ron?" she asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Back there somewhere arguing with Malfoy," she answered. "Mind if I come with you?"

"Whatever," Ginny said, shrugging.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Meanwhile, an uncomfortable silence had descended over the compartment where Danny, Sam, Tucker, Neville, and Luna sat. Luna was studying Danny intently.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

"There they are," Hermione said, pointing to the compartment. "Who's that?"

"Loony Lovegood, she's in my year, but in Ravenclaw," Ginny answered.

"Well let's go in," said Hermione. She opened the door.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Suddenly Luna's face brightened, as if she'd suddenly remembered something. "I know who you are," she said, in a dreamy voice with an undercurrent of excitement. "You're the halfa!"

"How did you know that?" Danny asked, panicked.

A voice from the now open (although none of them had heard it open) door said, "You're the halfa?" It was Hermione, with Ginny standing next to her.

"Well, yes, but"-

"I think you've got some explaining to do," Hermione said grimly, stepping in with Ginny and shutting the door.

Danny's shoulders slumped as he began to tell his story.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

So that's everything," he said, "I swear I'm not evil or anything, and whatever Vlad's said about me isn't true."

The silence in the compartment was complete, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Danny was almost shaking with nervousness, his body tense, ready to go ghost at a moment's notice if Hermione or Ginny decided Vlad was telling the truth and he wasn't, and fly out of there.

He really had nothing to worry about, since Hermione had already formed the conclusion that she had been around Danny all summer and it didn't seem like he was violently inclined at all, while she'd only met Vlad twice and hadn't liked him even then. No, what she was really wondering about was how Luna had figured this out just by seeing him.

But just as she was about to ask Luna, the train gave a jolt and stopped. The lights flickered into non-existence, and a light blue mist escaped from Danny's mouth.

**Ok, so it's only about two hundred words longer than usual, sorry about that, but I couldn't think how else to end this chapter. Hopefully this should make those of you who have been saying Harry and co. should find out Danny's secret a little happier. Also, sorry if the chapter seems a little choppy, I was talking to a friend while writing this. ;)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Doughnuts for secret sparkle, Potterphan21, dark-angel miyuki, the great suskino, and lil' munkies! What to do for the next chapter… I know! Reviewers for the next chapter get a package of bubble wrap! I love bubble wrap! **

**Last chapter someone asked if this was a Ron/ Hermione story- the answer is no. It is also not a Harry/ Ginny story (Although Ginny does still have a crush on him in here, it doesn't play a large roll) There might be some Danny/ Sam later, but I think that's it… oh, except Harry/ Cho and _small_ Danny/ Kierra. I mean really small. Just like a crush like Danny has on Paullina.**

**Also, if you're confused what the porta-portal looks like, think that thing Johnny 13 had on his bike in 'Lucky in Love'**

**I also have a very important announcement that will probably confuse/ anger/ disappoint many (or at least I hope many of you will care that much). I've decided that… mainly due to the fact that it took fourteen chapters just to get them onto the train, this story will only follow them up through Christmas. **

**But there's more! I am also writing_ two_ sequels after this, one covering Vlad's first year at Hogwarts through I think Easter, and the other one the rest of Danny's first year at Hogwarts from Easter to the end of the year. (See my profile for a description of the first sequel. Right now it's called October 31, but I will almost definitely be changing that.) Also to forewarn you, both stories after this first one WILL INVOLVE SERIOUS TIME TRAVEL. If that kind of stuff doesn't float your boat, you will not enjoy those stories. **

**Don't ask me why I'm doing it that way, I just want to. XP This was not originally intended to be a trilogy, and I had always planned to explain the rest of the prophecy at the end of the year, so that might be at the end of this story or the end of the trilogy. I don't know yet.**

"What was that?" Neville's voice asked tremulously from somewhere to Danny's right.

Danny answered, although he was apparently talking more to himself than to Neville, "A ghost- but how did one get on the train?"

-A few minutes earlier-

"Hey, Harry," Ron said, entering the compartment where his friend was sitting and collapsing on the seat across from him.

"Hey," said Harry.

"Look what I found," Ron said, holding up a slightly grimy green device, no bigger than two inches in all directions, marked Fenton Porta-Portal out of his pocket.

"Where'd you get it?" Harry asked, his interest aroused, "Isn't that the thing Danny's parents sent him over the summer?"

"I guess," said Ron, "I never really got a good look at it. I wonder what it does…"

He pressed the green button on the top, and a swirling green hole appeared in front of the device, and through it came…

"I am the box ghost!"

The 'Box Ghost' looked around the compartment, apparently angry at what he saw. "Where are the boxes? How can I, THE BOX GHOST destroy you all if there are no boxes?"

There was a shrill scream from outside and all three of them looked out to see the witch who pushed the food trolley right outside, staring in horror at the floating blue specter.

The Box Ghost grinned as he caught sight of the boxes the candy rested in. "At last, some boxes I can use, for I am the box ghost!"

-Current time-

"No idea," said Tucker, shrugging.

"Oh well," said Danny, standing up, "I'm going ghost!"

A blue white ring of light materialized around his waist, and then split in two, one traveling up, towards his shoulders and head, the other going down, towards his ratty old gym shoes.

Despite knowing (generally) what was coming, Hermione, Neville, and even Luna watched in shock and awe as Danny Fenton transformed into his alter ego, Danny Phantom.

Self consciously refusing to meet any of their surprised gazes, he muttered, "I better go check that out."

There was silence for about thirty seconds after he slipped intangibly through the door.

"So can I try one of those chocolate frog things then?" Tucker asked as he picked up one of the sweets from the seat next to him where it had lain forgotten since the food trolley had come around five minutes ago.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Danny flew down the train, looking for the ghost that had triggered his ghost sense. Suddenly he heard two people running towards him, turning invisible as they passed.

"It was a specter!" One shouted, looking around eleven and probably new to Hogwarts.

His friend, no older than he was, paused in his frantic flight, "it was a _what_?" he asked

"An apparition!"

"_What_?"

"For Pete's sake it was a ghost!" shouted the first one as the kept running.** (1)**

Danny shrugged and continued flying, visible now, towards the cause of the commotion.

Finally, he caught sight of the box ghost.

Harry and Ron were edging fearfully away from him as he cackled madly, assorted boxes of candy whizzing through the air around him.

Danny rolled his eyes and sucked the box ghost up in the Fenton thermos. About to fly away, he paused as Ron yelled up at him, "hey, aren't you that halfa that's after Vlad? Inviso-bill or something?"

Silently threatening to _throttle_ whoever had come up with that name, Danny yelled back, annoyed, "I am _not_ 'after' Vlad!"

He vanished.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Not long after that the train was moving again, and most people had completely forgotten about the strange overall clad ghost that had terrorized them less than half an hour before.

Danny, however, was worried. The box ghost might not have been the most powerful ghost in the ghost zone, but if he could find his way into Hogwarts, other, stronger ghosts, could too.

He was interrupted by Hermione telling him loudly that they would be arriving at Hogwarts soon, and to change into his robes. He looked up, surprised to see the others already clad in the black uniforms they would need to wear when they entered the castle, and reached for his own.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+

When the train finally stopped, and the many students spilled out into what Hermione said was called Hogsmeade station, what first caught Danny's eye were the horseless carriages waiting in lines, he assumed to take the newly arrived students up to the castle.

He looked to his left and saw Sam glaring at one of the carriages… or more precisely the space between the shafts, where a horse would be… if there were any horses there.

"Can you believe that?" she asked him. He looked at her, confused.

"Believe _what_?" he asked.

"Those horses look half dead, and they're still being forced to drag a school full of people up to the castle."

"Sam, are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yes," she said, "It's the horses that look sick, not me."

"But Sam… there's no horses there."

"What are you talking about?" Tucker asked as he joined the conversation, "There are horses right there. And I have to agree with Sam, they _do_ look almost dead."

The conversation was ended as Hermione came over to tell them that she, Harry, and Ron were saving them room in their carriage but if they didn't hurry up they were going to leave.

Danny watched his two friends carefully as the got in, barely noticing that Harry had the same confused look on his face as his two friends.

His mind swam with possibilities-why couldn't he see the horses like Tucker and Sam did? _If they really are seeing them_, he reminded himself. _They could be imagining things._

But his musings were ended as Hogwarts came into sight.

The castle was truly a remarkable sight. A great looming shape on the horizon, its many windows lighted up with the soft glow of lamps within. The carriages slowed to a stop, and people began emerging from them, climbing up the stairs to the front entrance.

**1- (Laughs) Credit for that part goes to my reading teacher. I got it out of an adaptation he made of The Christmas Carol. Think Scrooge working at McDonalds. Yea. **

**Yea, that's it. Hopefully it's a little bit longer, because updates are going to be a little bit slower until after Christmas. (My birthday, my cousin's birthday, getting gifts ready, and tons of other holiday stuff). I also have a possible Christmas story in the works. I don't have the description on my profile yet, but I've got the start of chapter one on my computer. **

**Also they're saying it might snow over a foot tonight, so possibly no school tomorrow! XP Just wanted to say that…**


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